FEBRUARY 10TH, 1964:
"Greatest Irish Victory on English Soil", the headline on this date in 1964 said of Ireland's 18-5 rugby victory over England at Twickenham, a game also notable for the first appearance in the Irish team of Mike Gibson, one of the game's greatest centres who went on to play a further 68 times for Ireland. Paul MacWeeney described Gibson's debut in this extract from his match report.
IRELAND’S VICTORY over England at Twickenham on Saturday by three goals and a try to a goal was an occasion to be remembered for more reasons than a superb standard of attacking play, for many a year to come. This was the highest ever score recorded by an Irish team on English soil, and the second-highest put up by any side in the 54-year-old history of the Twickenham ground, Scotland still leading with 21 points in 1938. It was Ireland’s fifth victory at England’s headquarters, the last being in 1948, but perhaps most extraordinary of all is the fact that England had not lost to any of the home countries or France on their own territory since 1956, so a run of 16 matches without defeat was ended – and in an utterly convincing manner.
No wonder the pitch was invaded by hundreds of Irish enthusiasts to congratulate the triumphant players and carry some of them shoulder-high to the dressing room entrance . . .
Both teams concentrated on try-scoring, and the employment of the basic skills which have, for so long, been forgotten, and in the constant ebb and flow of the play from one end to the other, this was a classic encounter and one to make the touring New Zealanders, in retrospect, seem a very drab lot, indeed.
The hopes that Gibson, the 21-years-old Belfast youth, would spark off a renaissance for Irish rugby exceeded the most optimistic expectations. He started nervously, dropping two or three passes early on, and it proves his temperament to the hilt that so far from letting those errors worry him, he should have gone on to make an international debut which will have a page in the history of the game.
When he settled down, and survived a very anxious period of half-an-hour for the whole team, with England menacingly on the offensive, he plunged a knife into the opposition’s heart with a dazzling run to lay on the first try for Murphy. After Fortune had had to depart, 15 minutes from the end, with a fractured collar bone and Ireland’s lead only a bare three points, he applied the coup-de-grace with a dummy and a burst of speed from inside his own half to pave the way for a try by Casey, after which the loss of our left wing was immaterial to the outcome . . .
Gibson infused a new spirit of swashbuckling adventure into the entire team. After England had snatched the lead in the eighth minute of the second half, Ireland attacked with such fury that two golden try-scoring chances were lost within the next few minutes. When they regained the advantage in the 21st minute, there was never a question of sitting on it in the manner which had cost us victory on the same ground four years ago.
Instead, the hunger for tries became even more pronounced, and when our forces were reduced to 13 in the closing minutes while Gibson was having a severely cramped leg massaged on the side line by a group of almost frenzied Irish supporters, the urge to press on was as strong as ever, culminating in the last try in the fourth minute of injury time, which Kiernan converted with the last kick of the game. So mature is Gibson in every respect, except in years, that a glowing future must lie ahead not only for him but for Irish back play as well.
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